ON THE RISE
“Afraid,” the latest release from Eden Hill, is the story of a spiritual journey told in hip-hop.
It is all about the trip, not the destination, and it is Christian with all the elements people want in hip-hop and rap but with no preachiness and no pretense that the decision to believe takes away all doubt and pain.
What it does have is all the pleasure of listening to an accomplished artist work out his message in beat and melody.
“Basically, ‘Afraid’ is a journey from believing falsehoods about God to knowing the truth,” said Eden, “but not walking in it, to, finally, accepting the truth and then figuring out how to walk in it.”
The flow of his rap varies with the stages of the journey, told to beats delivered by piano and drums. Main points are accented sharply by strings.
“It was a very, very fun beat to make,” he said. “It started out with the piano, for sure. The piano is more like a classical tone, and it’s kind of like a build-up throughout the whole progression.”
Turmoil and doubt kick it off:
Look I don't even know where to begin
Probably I should start looking within
And find the broken bits of me that hide discretely underneath my skin
The intensity, volume and speed of the piano and Eden’s rap build until the music suddenly stops. Into the silence, Eden says:
I feel
The drum drops on
Psychotic
And it’s off to the races.
Familiar trap and Eden’s trap deal with the same life reality. The difference is in reaction and perspective.
On the one hand is anger, bravado, defiance or violence, from the natural human perspective. On the other hand is Eden’s spiritual perspective, which trends toward hope.
Hardship and fear are present in both.
“It’s a really raw, vulnerable song that deals with a spiritual awakening and seeking healing and understanding through faith in God.”
He doesn’t shy away from the “mental turmoil” that comes through dealing with regret and shame.
The song deals with common misconceptions, like God is just there to give us what we want.”
Maybe I could get a bit of this
Maybe I could get a bit of that
Come on God I’m doing what you're asking
The music helps tell the story.
“The orchestral buildup engages the listener in the story, where all these thoughts are coming up, all these doubts and misconceptions are coming up. The music represents the train of thought behind the lyrics. Then the drums hit at the empowering moments.”
And I got it going for me lyrically I’m blessed
I’ve been picked out of the sin I had he called me elect
And you can see the transformation grace is taking effect
Eden’s Christian journey began in church before faith fell away from middle school through high school and college and a 10-year career in secular rap. That period involved witchcraft, communion with dark spirits, New Age spiritualism, “all that dark energy stuff.”
Then one night, “Jesus met me in an acid trip.” The meeting included a terrifying vision of his physical and spiritual death, and he came out of the dream with the thought, “What if Jesus really is the way, the truth and the life?”
He stopped making music after 2020 when, he says, God withdrew his gift for music “until I promised that I would make my music to glorify Him and to be honest.”
This year, he started his career all over. He has released an eight-track album, Patience, and two singles, “Trust” and now “Afraid.”
He calls himself “a pivotal figure in Christian rap,” by which he means being honest about the Christian journey.
Most Christian rappers, he said, don’t talk about struggling with faith because “they want to promote Christianity as your life gets better instantly when that’s not really the case.”
“Christianity is a hard walk. While we’re on this planet, we’re gonna struggle.”
“Being a pivotal figure in the Christian hip-hop space, I want to show people that, ‘Hey, this is it. This is a battlefield, but we have armor and we have a protector. We have angel armies on our side.’ And not only that, but there is a wonderful eternity ahead of us.”
“Afraid” introduces the 10 tracks on his next album, Fear No Evil. The album drops on October 4.
It will be “kind of like a cinematic journey about going from spiritual bondage to peace and spiritual freedom.”
Wanting or seeking a Christian message is not necessary to appreciate his music. His lyrics are not pablum. They deal with struggle, doubt and hardship. Believe in Christianity or not, the lyrics serve up food for thought and the music creates a lively, energetic space for thinking.
“The truth is, we live in a broken world. We live in a world burdened by poverty, by wars, division in politics, division in households, littered with hardships left and right, and it attacks us personally. Christian or not, we carry the burden of this world. I just want people to know that there’s hope.”
Ride the hope along with Eden Hill. Connect with him on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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ON THE RISE
Blossoms caught up with NME to discuss competing with The Beatles and Johnny Marr for this week’s Number One album. With ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ in the running, the band also explained why making things themselves remains such an important part of their work as AI becomes more common.
The Stockport group put out their sixth album last Friday, October 2. By the midweek update, it was sitting at Number Two, between The Beatles’ expanded edition of ‘Rubber Soul’ and Johnny Marr’s latest solo album, ‘The Age Of Everything’.
“It’s mad, to be honest,” singer Tom Ogden said to NME about the chart race. “Liverpool on one side, Manchester on the other and Stockport in the middle. If you’d told us this 10 years ago, when we were releasing our debut, I wouldn’t have believed you. But I mean, we’re in good company aren’t we?”
Discussing the stories behind the album, Ogden described ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ as “about being married and all the everyday stuff that comes with it”. He married Katie Donovan, the sister of Blossoms drummer Joe, in 2021. Married life has since given him a new appreciation for what he describes as “the extraordinary ordinary”.
“Saying the wrong thing in an argument, losing your wife’s no claims bonus, crying at the Kardashians, it’s all in there,” he explained. “The album is named after Stockport Town Hall, which everyone round where we live calls the Wedding Cake, and it’s where I got married, so it couldn’t be much closer to home.
“The last album [‘Gary’, 2024] had a song about a stolen fibreglass gorilla, which everyone loved, and that gave us the confidence to bring the same playfulness to this one, just with more personal subject matter this time.”
Alongside tracks that came out of writing sessions with Declan McKenna in a hot tub, the album reflects the band’s desire to stay involved in every part of the creative process.
“It started with the recording,” Ogden explained. “We made the album with Shawn Lee, playing live straight to tape, and once you’ve done it that way you can’t really go and fake everything else. We sat down as a band and picked the colour palette, and everything visual followed from that. We had body scans taken of ourselves and cake toppers of the five of us 3D printed, put them on a real cake and photographed it. I’ve directed and edited the videos, and the sets are all built by hand, no green screen. For the pop-up shop on launch weekend, a local artist hand-painted the album cover for the sign outside.
“It’s more work, but you end up with a world that’s yours, and I think people can tell when a band’s had its hands on everything.”
With AI tools and digital effects becoming increasingly widespread, that approach feels particularly relevant. For Blossoms, though, the motivation is simple: “the fun is in the making”.
“Tape doesn’t let you cheat and neither does a real cake,” Ogden said. “If a set’s a bit wonky, it’s because one of us or our mates built it. I think the more stuff gets generated, the more people want to know a human being actually did it. We’ve been in this band together for over 10 years, five lads from Stockport, and that isn’t something you can ‘prompt’.”
Maya Jama also appeared in the video for the album’s first single, ‘Meet Me In Love’. Her appearance came shortly before the UK launch of Celebrity Traitors, where she took on the role of a traitor alongside a cast that included Richard E Grant and James Acaster.
“She was brilliant,” Ogden recalled of working with Jama. “We’d met her at the MTV EMAs in Manchester a couple of years ago, so we took a chance and sent her a DM …and she said yes. Next thing she’s in a theatre in Cheadle miming my vocals while a load of people dressed as me serenade her. She got the idea straight away and was a proper laugh about it.”
The conversation then turned to whether he thought Jama could take home the win on Celebrity Traitors.
Ogden joked: “As for Traitors, she spent a whole day pretending to sing my song and I almost believed her, so I’d say she’s got every chance.”
Fans can listen to ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ now. In November, Blossoms head out on a UK arena tour with The Royston Club. Tickets and further details are available here.
Before the tour begins, the group is also scheduled to appear on SNL UK on Saturday, October 24.
